Narrow gauge hook bar for tufting machine

ABSTRACT

A hook bar for a multiple needle-tufting machine having alternating staggered slots in the front and rear faces of the hook bar for receiving loopers in a narrow gauge.

[ 511 Jan. 18,1972

United States Patent Gable et al.

S T m MM s 2 3 m U Q U [54] NARROW GAUGE HOOK BAR FOR TUFTING MACHINE[72] Inventors: Larry P. Gable; Clyde H. Langley, both of 3,398,7088/l968 Card.............r.......................l12/79R 3,402,686 9/1968Rodstein et a]. 12/79 R Dalton, Ga.

[73] Assignee: Card 8: Co., Inc., Chattanooga, Tenn.

[22] Filed: Sept. 22, 1970 Primary Examiner-James R. BolerAttorney-Harrington A. Lackey [57] ABSTRACT A hook bar for a multipleneedle-tufting machine having alternating staggered slots in the frontand rear faces of the hook bar for receiving loopers in a narrow gauge.

[21] Appl. No.: 74,378

............l12/79R 15/22 ....l 12/79 R, 79 A, 80, 266, 410

[52] [1.8. [51] int. [58] Field ofSearch.........

4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEU m 1 a are iffy! INVENTORS: LHRRY PG/qsui Clo/D; H. IJ ING EY YW iz/ ATTORNEY NARROW GAUGE HOOK BAR FORTUFTING MACHINE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to amultiple needle-tufting machine, and more particularly to a hook bar fora multiple needle-tufting machine.

Conventional hook bars for multiple needle-tufting machines are longbars extending transversely of the machine below the needles and thebase fabric. A conventional hook bar has uniformly spaced slots in itsrear face for receiving the loopers which cooperate with the needles toform loops in the yarns carried by the needles. For a narrow gaugemultiple needle-tufting machine, the slots in the rear face of the hookbar must be formed close together.

Although the theoretical limit of the narrowness of the gauge is thethickness of the needles and the loopers, as a practical matter, thenarrowness of the gauge is limited by the thickness of the walls in thehook bar between the looper slots. As the looper slots are spaced closertogether, the walls between them become thinner, and therefore weaker.Furthermore, the walls between the looper slots must be thick enough tosupport the internally threaded holes formed through the rear face forsupporting the screws which retain the loopers in the slots.

In order to form more narrow gauge tufting machines, needles have beenarranged in staggered front and rear rows. A typical example of a narrowgauge multiple needle-tufting machines is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.2,976,829 of Roy T. Card, issued Mar. 28, 1961. The Card patentdiscloses staggered needles and a hook bar having looper slots formed inthe rear face to receive loopers with alternately staggered hook billsso that each hook bill will cooperate with an alternately staggeredneedle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of this invention toprovide a hook bar particularly constructed to receive loopers in afore-andaft staggered arrangement which will cooperate with staggeredneedles on a narrow gauge, and which will overcome the above enumerateddisadvantages of conventional hook bars.

More particularly, the hook bar made in accordance with this inventionhas a rear row of transversely spaced looper slots formed in the rearface of the hook bar and a front row of transversely spaced looper slotsformed in the front face of the hook bar. The front and rear slots arepreferably equally spaced and staggered so that the loopers are arrangedat the same uniform gauge as their cooperating needles.

By providing slots in both the front and rear faces, walls between eachpair of slots may be twice as thick, for the same uniform gauge, as thewalls between slots in the rear face of a conventional hook bar.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a fragmentary, sectionalelevation taken longitudinally through a multiple needle-tufting machinehaving a hook bar made in accordance with this invention, and disclosingthe needles and loopers in operative loop-forming positlons;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary rear elevation of the hook bar and loopersdisclosed in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary top plan view of the hook bar with the loopersremoved, taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings inmore detail, FIG. 1 discloses a transverse needle bar in a conventionalmultiple needle-tufting machine supporting a first row of frontuniformly spaced needles 11 and a second row of uniformly spaced rearneedles 12 offset preferably midway between the front needles 11, toprovide a uniform needle gauge. The needle bar 10 is verticallyreciprocated by conventional means, not shown, to cause the front andrear needles 11 and 12 to move between an upper position above the basefabric 13 to a lower position penetrating the base fabric 13 so that theneedles will carry yarns, such as yarn 14 through the base fabric 113 toform loops of tufting therein. The base fabric 13 is supported upon aneedle plate 15 for movement, by means not shown, in the direction ofthe arrow of FIG. I, that is, longitudinally from front to rear throughthe machine.

Cooperating with each front needle 11 for forming loops in the yarn 14is a front looper I7. Also adapted to cooperate with each rear needle 12to form a loop in a yarn carried by the needle 12 is a rear looper 18.The front looper 17 has a shank 19 of uniform thickness, and the rearlooper 18 has a shank 20 of uniform thickness, and preferably of thesame thickness as the shank 19.

All of the front loopers 17 and the rear loopers 18 are carried in thehook bar 22 made in accordance with this invention, and adapted to bereciprocated by conventional means, not shown, longitudinally from frontto rear. FIG. 1 discloses the hook bar 22 and the loopers 117 and 18 intheir rearmost operative positions for forming the loops with theneedles I1 and 12 in their lowermost positions.

Formed in the front face 23 of the hook bar 22 are a plurality ofuniformly spaced front slots 24 of uniform thickness, each front slot 24having a thickness only slightly greater than the thickness of the shank19 of the front looper 17. Each front slot 24 opens through the frontface 23 and is adapted to receive the shank 19 of each front looper 17.

In a similar manner, a plurality of uniformly spaced rear slots 25 areformed through the rear face 26 of the hook bar 22. Each rear slot 25 isof uniform thickness, and only of slightly greater thickness than thethickness of the shank 20 of each rear looper 18. The rear slots 25 alsopreferably open through the rear face 26 of the hook bar 22 forreceiving the shanks 20 of each corresponding rear looper 18.

In order to set the front loopers l7 and 18 on the same uniform gauge asthe staggered needles 11 and 12, the rear slots 25 are staggered withrelation to the front slots 24 so that each rear slot 25 is locatedlongitudinally midway between a pair of front slots 24.

Each looper l7 and 18 is retained in :its respective front slot 24 andrear slot 25 by means of the conventional looper retaining screws 28.

FIG. 2 clearly shows how the diameter of each screw 28 exceeds the widthof each slot 25, and therefore limits the thinness of the walls betweenthe slots 25 in the hook bar 22, as well as the walls between the slots24.

The extra wall thickness between the slots 24and slots 25 obtained inhook bar 22 is also important because, in a conventional hook bar, thewalls between the looper slots in a narrow gauge machine can become sothin that they become flexible. When the slot walls become too flexible,the loopers become unstable and cannot be rigidly confined to theuniform needle gauge. Furthermore, flexible slot walls promote vibrationof the loopers and unnecessary wear against the needles.

What is claimed is:

1. In a multiple needle-tufting machine having a plurality of needlesdisposed transversely across the machine and adapted to reciprocate andcarry yarn through a basefabric moving in a plane longitudinally throughthe machine, a looper mechanism comprising:

a. a hook bar mounted transversely below the plane of the base fabricfor longitudinal reciprocable movement to an operative position belowsaid needles, said hook bar having a front face and a rear face,

c. transversely spaced front slots in said front face for receivingfront loopers, so that each front looper will form a loop in a yarncarried by a first needle in said operative position,

d. transversely spaced rear slots in said rear face for receiving rearloopers, so that each rear looper will form in operative position a loopin a yarn. carried by a second needle.

rear slot being staggered midway between a pair of front slots, so thatsaid front and rear slots are arranged in the same uniform gauge as saidneedles.

4. The invention according to claim 2 in which said front slots are ofuniform thickness and open through the front face of said hook bar, andsaid rear slots are of uniform thickness and open through the rear faceof said hook bar.

1. In a multiple needle-tufting machine having a plurality of needlesdisposed transversely across the machine and adapted to reciprocate andcarry yarn through a base fabric moving in a plane longitudinallythrough the machine, a looper mechanism comprising: a. a hook barmounted transversely below the plane of the base fabric for longitudinalreciprocable movement to an operative position below said needles, b.said hook bar having a front face and a rear face, c. transverselyspaced front slots in said front face for receivinG front loopers, sothat each front looper will form a loop in a yarn carried by a firstneedle in said operative position, d. transversely spaced rear slots insaid rear face for receiving rear loopers, so that each rear looper willform in operative position a loop in a yarn carried by a second needle.2. The invention according to claim 1 in which said first needles arearranged in a front transverse row and said second needles are arrangedin a rear transverse row.
 3. The invention according to claim 2 in whichsaid first needles are equally spaced and said second needles areequally spaced, each second needle being staggered midway between a pairof adjacent first needles, to form a uniform gauge, said front slotsbeing equally spaced in said front face, and said rear slots beingequally spaced in said rear face, each rear slot being staggered midwaybetween a pair of front slots, so that said front and rear slots arearranged in the same uniform gauge as said needles.
 4. The inventionaccording to claim 2 in which said front slots are of uniform thicknessand open through the front face of said hook bar, and said rear slotsare of uniform thickness and open through the rear face of said hookbar.